Syria

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 22, 2018 1:02 pm

US Trying to Use Syria as a Garrison for Operations in Middle East, Scholar Says

While Turkey has begun an operation against the Kurds in the Syrian city of Afrin and the US recently announced plans to continue its military commitment in the Middle Eastern country, Radio Sputnik discussed the developments with Prof. Dr. Bora Bayraktar from Kultuk University in Istanbul.

Sputnik: Turkey is saying that the operation is within the boundaries of a right to self-defense and also within the framework of international law. Do you agree with that?

Prof. Dr. Bora Bayraktar: Of course, I agree with that because, you know, in the city I live, in Istanbul, there were many terrorist attacks last in 2016. And we know that this organization [the PKK] was behind it. Turkey needs to protect its borders, and also Turkey didn't get diplomatic support from allies and, you know, we can also call Russia an ally for Turkey, especially in Syria. So, this is a big problem, and Turkey has to deal with this issue. And it seems that Afrin would be one of the reasons why Turkey considers that it's facing terrorist attacks. Afrin is one of the bases of the PYD/PKK, so from the Turkish point of view, this is legitimate.

Sputnik: The US and Turkey have had extremely strained relations for the past few years. How is that going to play into this situation?

Prof. Dr. Bora Bayraktar: In none of the major issues Turkey and the United States are on the same page, especially for the last decade, we can say. The situation in Iraq, the Kurdish issue, the coup attempt in Turkey — Turkey believes that the person behind it is in the United States and they have affiliation with US intelligence — also the Jerusalem issue, Syria, in many issues and major problems Turkey, and Russia, and the US don't have common goals. They are rivals actually, we can say this easily. But they are both [Turkey and the US] NATO partners, Turkey was part of the Western security system for decades. So this is a big issue. And when it comes to Syria, Turkey is trying to keep the territorial integrity of Syria, trying to keep its borders safe, while the US (and this is my personal opinion) is looking for a garrison state in the eastern part of the Euphrates River. They are trying to build a statelet to use it as a garrison for further operations in the Middle East against Iran, Turkey, Syria, Iraq. This is an important foothold, so I think in this case, again, Turkey and the US have problems, and they will have more problems if the US keeps supporting the PYD and other groups that Turkey considers terrorist organizations.

Sputnik: What can be done to resolve the situation between Turkey, the US and Russia in Syria?

Prof. Dr. Bora Bayraktar: It's a very difficult task. I think right now, for geopolitical and strategic reasons Turkey and Russia are getting closer because, you know, they feel the same threat from the United States, especially when it comes to the Middle East and the territorial integrity of the countries like Syria and Iraq.

Sputnik: Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov said that the US is not interested in keeping Syria's territorial integrity. What's your take on that?

Prof. Dr. Bora Bayraktar: I totally agree with Mr. Lavrov, because what the United States did last week, you know, they declared that there will be a 30,000 man force that will protect the borders of Syria which is the violation of Syrian territorial integrity, violation of Syrian sovereignty. And as I told you, they are looking for a garrison state in Syria, and this is not acceptable for any country in the region. And I think Mr. Lavrov has a reason for saying that. Although the US Secretary of State Tillerson and a spokesman from Pentagon denied this claim, they said "ok, we are not looking for an extra army." But when we look at the actions, not the words, we see that the United States is trying to cut a piece of Syria for their use, and this is not acceptable.

The views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

https://exchange.charter-business.net/o ... Note&a=Del

Yet Mr Lavrov will agree to and advocate for 'no fly zones', 'safety zones' all of which facilitate the partition of the country.
Russia's policy is crooked.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 27, 2018 2:28 pm

US Coalition bombs the Iraqi Army after they arrested a high ranking ISIS commander (photos)
By Leith Aboufadel - 27/01/20180

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BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:50 P.M.) – The US-led Coalition attacked an Iraqi Army convoy in the western countryside of the Al-Anbar Governorate, Saturday, killing and wounding over ten soldiers as a result of this surprise bombing.

According to a report from the Iraqi Armed Forces, their military personnel had just arrested a high ranking Islamic State (ISIS) commander, when a US Coalition helicopter attacked their convoy near the city of Al-Baghdadi in Al-Anbar.

The US Coalition stated on Saturday that the attack a mistake and that they have opened up an investigation into the bombing.

“It seems the strike was a mistake,” the official said of the incident in the Euphrates Valley town, adjacent to the Ain al-Asad airbase 250 kilometres (160 miles) west of the capital.

Below are some of the photos the Iraqi Armed Forces released after the US bombing in western Al-Anbar

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https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us ... er-photos/

oopsie........
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 01, 2018 3:08 pm

WHITE HELMETS: Channel 4, BBC, The Guardian – Architects of War
FEBRUARY 1, 2018 BY VANESSA BEELEY 1 COMMENT

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Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire

“As Fewer Companies Control Our Media, Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever”. This was the title of a Huffington Post article, written in 2014, by Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmaker, producer and screenwriter. Spurlock informs us, “Films are incredible things. Magical things. Windows into worlds that we may never get to see and connecting with us on such deep emotional levels that we are forever affected by them and their messages. Films cannot only entertain but can shift public perception in ways we never thought possible.”

As if on cue, a vast number of documentaries have flooded the media market. The huge majority have conveyed a very one-sided perspective of the conflict in Syria and have, almost invariably, supported the US Coalition regime change narrative, which has prolonged the destabilization project in the region for the last seven years. Are these documentaries any more accurate than the corporate media they might replace?

For example, on April 5, 2017, National Geographic released a preview of its film, Hell on Earth: The Fall Of Syria And The Rise of ISIS, by filmmaker Sebastian Junger and producing partner Nick Quested. This film was prematurely released to coincide with the alleged and controversial Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapon attacks in Syria, on April 4th. However, as Paul Larudee revealed, the film preview was a fraudulent misrepresentation of the war in Syria:

“The [opening] scene shows a missile destroying a residential building with a thunderous explosion. Imposed over the footage are the words, ALEPPO, SYRIA…[…] The original source footage comes from 2014, and is from the Israeli operation that took more than 2,200 Palestinian lives that summer”

“Shifting public perception” is, indeed, one of the roles of modern documentary makers, who, in many instances, take their funding from the same Time Warner, AOL and Walt Disney media investment pools in order to produce heart-stopping, emotion-wringing perception-changers for a western public whose opinions on state foreign policy is undoubtedly, hugely influenced by these ostensibly ‘factual’ documentaries.

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Publicity still from Last Men in Aleppo.

During the 7 year-long US Coalition-engineered, financed and armed Syria project, very few organisations have been so feted in political, media and Hollywood circles, as the NATO member-state-financed White Helmets.

Last year’s Oscar award for the Netflix documentary on the White Helmets is followed by the 2018 nomination for Last Men in Aleppo, the latest glossy, emotionally-charged promotional movie, featuring members of the alleged “first response” group doing what they do best – clambering over rubble, terrorist cheerleading and gazing skywards at imaginary helicopters.

Function of these movies – to ensure that the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets come up smelling of roses from the rubble of areas of Syria occupied by terrorist and extremist groups lorded over by Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria).

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Taken from the Syria Campaign website, just one of their “achievements” in their long-running campaign to “change the story on Syria”

Syria Campaign is effectively the White Helmet PR agency, seed-funded by UK resident and Syrian oil magnate, Ayman Asfari, who, incidentally, has also financed Theresa May’s Conservative governnment and is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in the UK, having been already sanctioned in Italy for insider trading. He can, most certainly, be described as an interested party in the outcome of the Syrian conflict with openly declared political ambitions once the ‘UK FCO-endorsed “regime change” is secured’. Plans that have been thwarted by the secular Syrian resistance with the support of their regional allies.

According to one of their many job offers, Syria Campaign have focused their advocacy efforts on the White Helmet organisation (emphasis added):

Created award-winning films that have been viewed by tens of millions of people and shown in the White House.
Generated thousands of media stories about Syria around the world.
Unlocked tens of millions of dollars in aid through targeted advocacy.
Placed key aspects of the conflict at the top of the political agenda.
Raised millions of dollars
in direct support for life-saving Syrian heroes.
Built a community of more than 500,000 people across the world taking action in solidarity with Syria’s heroes.

Who Defends the White Helmets Unconditionally?

(much more to this, graphic heavy, please go to link)

http://21stcenturywire.com/2018/02/01/w ... tects-war/

So far Beeley has been an excellent reporter despite her association with '21st Century Wire'.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:58 pm

Syria - U.S. May Have Arranged "Self Defense" Attack On Syrian Government Forces

Last night the illegal U.S. occupation force in north-east Syria attacked a group of Syrian government aligned troops and their Russian support. The incident happened north-east of Deir Ezzor city on the east side of the Euphrates. The U.S. claims that it killed some 100 Syrian soldiers that were allegedly attacking its proxy forces in an attempt to recover oil fields.

There is a factual separation of areas south-west of the Euphrates under Syrian government control and north-east of the Euphrates under U.S. occupation. But several locations around Manbij, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor contradict that and are under control of the respective other side. The U.S. claims that a "de-confliction line" along the Euphrates is agreed upon. The Syrian government says that no such agreement exists.

An small area across the Euphrates north-east of Deir Ezzor had been taken by Syrian government forces months ago. It is near some oilfields which the U.S. wants to keep away from the Syrian government.

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"The U.S. wants to keep Syria weak and poor," says Prof. Joshua Landis. According to Landis the U.S. is keeping the north-east of Syria under occupation to deny Syria access to its oil and its best agricultural land. It wants to turn Syria into a swamp for Russia and Iran to the benefit of mostly Israel.

The valuable oil and gas fields are currently in the hands of local Arab tribes who earlier worked with the Islamic State and are now, the U.S. claims, allied with the YPG/PKK Kurds under the name Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF is the U.S. local proxy force for its occupation.

On the Syrian government side in Deir Ezzor are a few Syrian troops, local militia from the area, as well as members of Russian private military contractor named Wagner Group. Wagner allegedly has a contract with the Syrian government that will give it some 25% of all revenues from oil-fields it recovers and protects.

Last night the U.S. military announced that it had "self defended" against an attack by Syrian government troops on Syrian ground:

Syrian pro-regime forces initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters Feb. 7.
Coalition service members in an advise, assist, and accompany capacity were co-located with SDF partners during the attack eight kilometers east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line.

In defense of Coalition and partner forces, the Coalition conducted strikes against attacking forces to repel the act of aggression against partners engaged in the Global Coalition's defeat-Daesh mission.

Reuters reports:

More than 100 fighters aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed overnight when U.S. coalition and coalition-backed local forces repelled their attack in eastern Syria, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
The heavy death toll underscored the large size of the attack, which the U.S. official said included about 500 opposing forces, backed by artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars. The official spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
...
No American troops were killed or wounded in the incident, officials said.

Some U.S. troops had been embedded at the time with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose headquarters in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province had been a target of the attack.

One SDF fighter was wounded, the official said.

The U.S.also claims that it had seen preparations for the Syrian move and had warned the Russian command in Syria in advance:

The U.S.-led coalition had alerted Russian officials about the presence of SDF forces in the area far in advance of the thwarted attack, the U.S. official said.
Other sources say that there have been talks between Wagner and locals Arabs guarding the currently unproductive "Conoco" oil and gas field operation near the town of Khisham.

Hassan Hassan @hxhassan - 12:17 AM - 8 Feb 2018
5. Interesting, about a week ago, local reports also suggested an imminent deal to hand over the plant to the regime through an Arab faction within the SDF.
A translation of an earlier report from the opposition Al-Etihad media seems to confirm that some deal had been made:

Activists said Assad forces and Shiite militias have gathered near the villages of Bakkara Akidat, Dahla and Sabah in the eastern suburbs of Deir-ez-Zor (east of the Euphrates) near the Conoco gas field, which is controlled by Kurdish forces.
The sources added that the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces informed the U.S.-led coalition forces of these developments. The coalition urged SDF fighters not to resist the regime forces and surrender the area.

The activists added that the SDF has already withdrawn heavy weapons from their areas held by Arab and Turkmen factions.

Might this whole operation have been a trap? The U.S. military clearly knew that something was going to happen in the area. Local deals were made between the Syrian government side and locals Arabs holding the oil fields. The U.S. told the SDF to move out of the way. When the government aligned groups started to take over the field, as presumably agreed upon, the U.S. bombed them.

The "attack on coalition forces" the U.S. claimed as justification for its bombing seems not to have taken place at all. How else does one explain that sole casualty of the claimed battalion size attack with strong artillery support is "one wounded SDF" fighter? A later U.S. military statement to a journalist seems to be vague about the reality of an attack:

After 20 to 30 artillery and tank rounds landed within 500 meters of the SDF headquarters location, Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the Coalition targeted the aggressors with a combination of air and artillery strikes.
Is the U.S. military emphasizing the "SDF headquarters location" because the headquarter was no longer there as the SDF had already withdrawn from it? And why is a tank round landing some 500 meters away seen as a direct attack? Tanks rounds may deviate from the targeted point by a meter or two. There is no chance that rounds landing some 500 meters away were intended to hit the headquarter location. Whatever the Syrian forces have been hitting at, if they hit at all, was not the SDF headquarter location.

The story the U.S. military is trying to sell here stinks.

The incident seems comparable to the unprovoked U.S. attack on Syrian troops in September 2016. That air attack killed 100 Syrian troops who were then encircled and holding out against Islamic State forces. At that time it nearly enabled the Takfiris to eliminate that last Syrian government position in the east.

There has recently been a chain of provocations against Russian and Syrian forces in Syria. Two massive drone swarm attacks were directed against the Russian air-port in Hememim and its naval base in Tartus. This week well targeted mortar rounds from east-Ghouta have hit the Russian trade mission in Damascus and severely damaged it. A Russian aid-distribution point in Damascus was similarly attacked just while leaders of some Russian non-government organizations were visiting it. Over Idleb a Russian jet was shot down with a rare MANPADS. All three were beyond the material and intelligence capabilities of the "rebel" forces.

The ludicrous "chlorine gas attack" propaganda against Syria is back in full force. Despite an Russian-Turkish-Iranian de-escalation agreement with Turkey, al-Qaeda and other "rebel" forces in Idleb governorate still seem to receive unlimited supplies through Turkish borders. Israel is attacking targets in Syria and tries to extend its occupation of the Golan heights.

The U.S. war against Syria and its allies continues with full forces even while the U.S. pretends that no such war is happening at all. The intend to create the swamp Prof. Landis talks about is hidden behind clandestine operations, "self defense" action and "humanitarian" blubber.

The U.S. should be careful. More than one side can play dirty games. Its troops in north-east Syria have thin supply lines and are not well protected. They, as well as U.S. forces in Iraq, are vulnerable to clandestine activities of the other side. I would not be surprised at all should they suddenly receive some unwanted and very bloody attention.

Posted by b on February 8, 2018 at 08:34 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/sy ... orces.html
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:19 pm

The Terrorism We Support in Syria: A First-hand Account of the Use of Mortars against Civilians
By Eva Bartlett

In stark contrast to the sparse coverage of the brutality of ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria over the past few years, there has recently been substantial coverage of the emergence of ISIS in Iraq and the terrorist acts that this US-backed and funded group has been committing. This surge of media focus on ISIS’ brutality in Iraq and particularly on the recent alleged be-headings of two American journalists is extensively considered, amongst independent political analysts, to be setting the stage for NATO and the Axis-of-Imperialists to “fight terrorism” in Iraq and Syria, aka destroy both countries (note: there are valid doubts as to the legitimacy of the Foley video itself).

Glaringly absent from corporate media accounts of the proxy-war being waged on Syria is the fact that the very same terrorist group, as well as other Western-backed, al-Qaeda aligned terrorist organizations (like al-Nusra and the so-called “Free Syrian Army”), have been terrorizing Syrians for years—beheading them, flogging, crucifying, amputating hands—to name but a few of their crimes against thousands of Syrians.

In a recent interview, scholar and author Zafar Bangash noted Western-complicity in supporting ISIS and other mercenary groups, as well as NATO’s complicity in the destruction of Syria thus far:

“As a member of NATO, obviously Turkey has close liaison with the United States, Britain, France, etc, providing them all kinds of information. A NATO member, that means by extension NATO itself, is involved in financing, supporting, arming, facilitating the transfer, or entry, of these terrorists into Syria.”

Also omitted are the terrorist-insurgents’ near-daily firing of lethal mortars upon civilian areas in Syria. According to political analyst and Damascus resident Mazen al-Akhras, in the three-month period of April, May and June 2014, terrorist-insurgents fired 994 mortars on Damascus and environs, 426 of which were fired in June (see list of locations hit and number of mortars below). On June 3, Election Day in Syria, the terrorist-insurgents fired 151 shells on Damascus, killing 5 and maiming 33 Syrians, Akhras said.

While statistics on the number of Syrians civilians killed and maimed by such mortar attacks are not readily available, a tally from State media news reports for the period of Jun 18, 2014-current (the available reports) reveals at least 48 Syrians were killed (including 10 children) and 358 injured by mortar fire.

The terrorizing car-bombings which were rampant in civilian areas of Homs (now secured by the Syrian Arab Army), and which continue to plague areas in Hama, have received some scant coverage. But the mortars continue (still out of the media spotlight), albeit to a lesser degree than a few months ago thanks to the gains of the Syrian army in areas like Mleiha (Damascus outskirts), where mortar-fire originated, and increasingly in Jobar (Damascus outskirts).

In April and June 2014, I spent a cumulative month in Syria, in various areas of Damascus, with visits to Latakia, Homs, and Ma’aloula. At the time, Damascus was being intensely shelled by mortars, frequently in my vicinity, including just behind the hotel housing the Peace Delegation which I accompanied for the first week (photo). This attack killed three civilians and one Syrian soldier. We saw some of the 60 plus children injured in the April 15 shelling of a school, not an isolated occasion, an attack which also killed one child. Mortars rained down at close-proximity on many occasions in different areas of the Old City where I had then found lodging.

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Photograph by Eva Bartlett, 2014.

Prior to and since then, other residential, civilian areas I’ve become familiar with have been incessantly-targeted, and none of those areas can be considered targets for a “revolution”—in other words, neither governmental nor military sites. The terrorist-insurgents are intentionally targeting high-density civilian areas, and often take videos of themselves manufacturing, preparing and firing the mortar shells.

Bab Touma (Thomas Gate), Bab Sharqi (East Gate), and the Shagour area of the Old City have all been repeatedly targeted, as have the commercial Shaalan district—particularly near the Dar al-Salaam school—and other areas of Damascus and environs, including Abasyeen, Dweilaa, Baramkeh, Jaramana, Yarmouk, and Mazzeh. These are areas housing shops, restaurants, homes, schools, hospitals and clinics, hotels, parks, and thus the victims are Syrian civilians, including children.

In June, I spoke with a National Defense Force (NDF) soldier, who explained to me the nature of the mortars being fired on Damascus, the surrounding areas and further afield in Syria. He began with an explanation of his own knowledge of weaponry:

“In Syria, when you are 18, you do mandatory military service (until 2005 it was 2.5 years; in 2011 it was reduced to 18 months). I served in a unit that specialized in rockets. But when they started teaching us about rockets, they had to first teach you the basic science, which is mortars. We began learning with 60-120 mm mortars. Then we learned about the larger sizes, like the 160 mm, and later about small rockets, then the bigger ones, like Scuds.

‘There are different kinds of mortars here. There are local mortars, made in workshops by the terrorists, and there are larger, American-made mortars of the kind used in the second world war, 60-80 mm mortars. These are infantry-specific, not intended for buildings or vehicles.”

But according to the NDF soldier, the home-made mortars are the dirtiest:

“They are shells, made in local workshops. Inside them they pack broken glass, nails, and anything that will hurt whoever is hit by the debris. They put explosives in the centre of these shards. Then they add the tail end and explosives to propel the mortar. When the mortar explodes, the metal container is destroyed and becomes shrapnel pieces which, along with the glass and nails, causes more extensive injuries.

“The US mortars are stronger, intended for infantry. But the terrorists are using them as well. They won’t cause much damage to buildings, but they can maim and kill a lot of people. The terrorists can’t enter the city, so they’re trying to stop daily life by firing mortars on the city. They’ve been very open about their reasons for firing mortars on Damascus and other areas: they are punishing the Syrians who do not support their ‘revolution’. They say if you are living in an area controlled by the army and government of Syria, so you are against the ‘revolution’ and they are going to attack you, they say that it is halal (permitted by Islam) to kill you.”

The NDF soldier was himself injured by shrapnel from mortar attacks on a residential and commercial area in central Damascus, the shells landing near a school and close to a popular cafe, not far from an open market area:

“On May 6, the day I was injured, 54 mortars were fired all over Damascus. In this neighbourhood alone, 27 mortars were fired on us. There is no military here, just civilians. The two mortars on this single street caused at least 15 injuries. By the end of the day, there were around 50 injured and two martyred.

“On June 3, Election Day, they fired mortars and then about five minutes later—when people had gathered to help—they fired more, just a few metres away from where the first ones had landed. So they caused many more casualties. They increased their mortars on Election Day because they wanted to stop people from going to vote.”

Terrorist mortar and missile attacks on cities throughout Syria increased notably in the lead-up to and including Election Day.

Al Akhbar reported:

“Syrian rebels bombarded a campaign rally in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s June 3 election bid, killing a number of citizens, Syrian state media and a monitoring group said Friday.

The mortar fire hit a tent where Assad supporters had gathered in the southern city of Daraa late on Thursday.

“Armed terrorist groups targeted civilians in a [national campaign] tent which led to the martyrdom of a number of citizens and injuring others,” state-run SANA said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack, saying at least 20 people were killed, including children, and 30 injured.”

Press TV updated:

“The death toll from a recent mortar attack by foreign-backed Takfiri militants on an election campaign rally in southern Syria has risen to nearly 40.

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported on Saturday that at least 39 people had lost their lives in the mortar attack on the election campaign rally in Syria’s southern city of Dara’a late on Thursday.

According to the report, some 205 people were also wounded in the attack, while 14 of the injured are in critical condition.”

In the lead-up to the elections, Syrian residents and media like Press TV noted the increase in mortar-fire, an attempt to intimidate Syrians from casting votes the following week.

On May 31, Press TV reported:

“Twenty people have been killed in mortar attacks carried out by foreign-backed militants on Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo.

The militants fired 40 mortar shells on several neighborhoods of the flashpoint city, destroying many buildings.

Takfiri groups have stepped up their attacks against Syrians in several cities and towns as the country prepares for the presidential election on June 3.”

A month later, in increased shelling largely seen as vindictive attacks on Inauguration Day, July 16, terrorists fired 23 shells on Damascus, Akhras reported. Syrian State media reported that four were killed and 30 injured by the mortars which targeted Shaalan district, Umayyad Square, and a park near the Sheraton Hotel.

The BBC account of the April 15 school shelling includes such intentionally misleading phrases as:

“They’re believed to be fired by rebels, but the government is also accused of launching them into neighbourhoods under its control.”

To counter this allegation, the NDF soldier explained,

“After evacuating injured and bystanders from the scene of a mortar strike, the security looks for the tail end of the mortar shell, because from the size of the tail end you can know the size of the mortar and thus its range, its trajectory. The 80 mm mortar will fly between 800-1500 metres. The bigger the tail, the further the range.”

Knowing the angle of impact, the range of travel, security can determine whether the mortars came from terrorist-insurgent controlled areas like Jobar (or formerly Mleiha, Barzeh and Daraya) and thus know its provenance:

“Mortars are routinely fired from Jobar, about 1.5 km from here (central Damascus). The main group there is the Nusra Front, though there are also some members of so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA). Some of the armed men were trying a while ago to surrender to the government, but when they would try, they’d get a sniper’s bullet to the head from the other terrorists. There are so many civilians not involved in these attacks, so the army can’t fully attack Jobar with heavy weapons.”

In the three weeks I stayed independent in Syria, I had ample opportunity to speak with Syrians on the issue of the insurgent-fired mortars.

One evening, I sat talking with a restaurant-owner near Bab Sharqi in the Old City. Abu Shadi, the restaurant owner, lamented the lack of tourists, due to the war on Syria, and spoke of his own close encounter with mortars. As we spoke, mortars were fired on different areas of the Old City, one of which roughly 50 metres from where we sat [LISTEN HERE]:

“When I hear kazyif (shell), kazyif, kazyif, for children, for school…these is people rubbish…come to children, to people…this is something no good. Two times come two kazife to my restaurant. Before one minute, I would die if I don’t go to sleep. I was here (roughly 2 metres from restaurant).”

Qamar, an employee in the hotel where I lodged at Bab Sharqi, spoke of her own worries:

“I have children, I worry about them going to school since the terrorists shelled a school last week. Last year, they shelled a school in my area, Mazzeh. A teacher was killed and students were injured.”

The genial hotel owner spoke one day about a friend of his killed a few days prior. “My friend was martyred by a mortar three days ago. He was a pharmacist…He was at Bab Touma at the time, walking on the street, and a mortar fell there. They want to burn Syria from within, want to leave these factions fighting each until Syria is burned down and Syria is bled-out.”

A university student I spoke with on a crowded Old City bus one morning commented on the formerly popular market area, Midan, as the bus passed by:

“People are afraid to come here now, because it’s so close to Yarmouk. Midan is safe, but people think that the terrorists in Yarmouk will fire mortars here. I used to go to Yarmouk all the time, but now, no way.”

Following an April 21 mortar attack on Bab Touma, which killed 2 and maimed 23, I spoke with shop employees who had been present at the time of the attack. An employee in a shoe shop said:

“It was just after 3 pm, the area was packed with people. It happens a lot, a lot, a lot…all the time. Shrapnel flew everywhere, little bits and pieces. In the last two weeks, around ten mortars have landed in this area. This isn’t a revolution. They’ve come from outside. Do you know how we were living? We had security, work…but, sorry, now?”

In a clothing shop, an employee present at the time said:

“We were inside, heard the explosion, went outside and saw the dead lying on the ground. We get these mortars all the time…”

Mazen al-Akhras, notes:

“The terrorists know that their mortars accomplish nothing practically, they are just a vengeful act against the people of Damascus for not supporting them. Sometimes they film themselves as evidence of their loyalty, presented to anyone who would sponsor them financially to keep fighting against President Assad.”

In recent months, the Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Forces have made impressive strides in eradicating mortar-firing and sniping insurgents from their bases in civilian areas like Mleiha, and in the past in Daraya. The reconciliation of other areas like Moadamiyeh and Barzeh has also meant a cessation of mortar fire from those areas.

Insurgents in Jobar, however, continue terrorizing Damascus and environs. On August 29, SANA reported three university students and one other civilian were injured by mortar-fire in different areas of Damascus. On August 30, SANA reported six civilians, including a girl, injured by shelling of Damascus districts, including near a hospital. On September 2, SANA reported the shelling of Damascus neighbourhoods, injured 8 cvilians, as well as in Hasaka city, injuring five, in Idleb, injuring two, and in Deir Ezzor, injuring two. These are just some of the continued terrorist mortar attacks in Syria.

This mortar terrorism, virtually unmentioned in corporate media, is further evidence of the intent of these foreign-backed insurgents to destroy Syria. As with the media’s omission of ISIS’ crimes against Humanity in Syria, the omission of the near-daily insurgent mortar fire upon civilians is ignored precisely because the destruction of Syria has always been on the agenda of the Axis-of-Interventionists, the US-Zionist-Gulf-Turkish-British-French-Jordanian project.

Mortar statistics April, May, June (via Mazen al-Akras):

Terrorists showered Damascus with a total of 994 mortar shell in April, May and June 2104, 355 of them in April, 213 in may and 426 in June.

The shells landed on different parts of the city as follows:

Abbasyeen and surrounding areas 163 Shells
Jaramana 147 Shells
Dweilaa and surrounding 88
Tadamon 84
Qassaa, Qusour and Bab Touma 69
Assad Suburb (near Harasta) 61
Tijara, Adawi and Mezraa 59
Hamra and Salhiyeh 47
Mazzeh 42
Old City 35
Baghdad Street 34
Yarmouk 27
Malki & Abu Rommaneh 19
Qazzaz and Sinaa 19
Airport freeway 18
Midan 14
Rukneddin 13
Muhajireen 12
Umawiyeen Square 12
Baramkeh 11
Zahira 10
Marjeh 5
Kafarsouseh 4
Barzeh 1

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian justice activist and freelance journalist and has been to Syria twice this year. Read other articles by Eva, or visit Eva’s website.

https://zeroanthropology.net/2014/09/11 ... civilians/
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:29 pm

NOW MATTIS ADMITS THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE ASSAD USED POISON GAS ON HIS PEOPLE
BY IAN WILKIE ON 2/8/18 AT 11:44 AM

Lost in the hyper-politicized hullabaloo surrounding the Nunes Memorandum and the Steele Dossier was the striking statement by Secretary of Defense James Mattis that the U.S. has “no evidence” that the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent Sarin against its own people.

This assertion flies in the face of the White House (NSC) Memorandum which was rapidly produced and declassified to justify an American Tomahawk missile strike against the Shayrat airbase in Syria.

Mattis offered no temporal qualifications, which means that both the 2017 event in Khan Sheikhoun and the 2013 tragedy in Ghouta are unsolved cases in the eyes of the Defense Department and Defense Intelligence Agency.

Mattis went on to acknowledge that “aid groups and others” had provided evidence and reports but stopped short of naming President Assad as the culprit.

There were casualties from organophosphate poisoning in both cases; that much is certain. But America has accused Assad of direct responsibility for Sarin attacks and even blamed Russia for culpability in the Khan Sheikhoun tragedy.

Now its own military boss has said on the record that we have no evidence to support this conclusion. In so doing, Mattis tacitly impugned the interventionists who were responsible for pushing the “Assad is guilty” narrative twice without sufficient supporting evidence, at least in the eyes of the Pentagon.

This dissonance between the White House and the Department of Defense is especially troubling when viewed against the chorus of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) experts who have been questioning the (Obama and Trump) White House narratives concerning chemical weapons in Syria since practically the moment these “Assad-ordered events” occurred.

Image
A view of the damaged Shayrat ('ash-Shairat') airfield at the Syrian government forces military base targeted by US Tomahawk cruise missiles, southeast of the central and third largest Syrian city of Homs, April 7, 2017.
STRINGER/AFP/GETTY

Serious, experienced chemical weapons experts and investigators such as Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, Gareth Porter and Theodore Postol have all cast doubt on “official” American narratives regarding President Assad employing Sarin.

These analysts have all focused on the technical aspects of the two attacks and found them not to be consistent with the use of nation-state quality Sarin munitions.

The 2013 Ghouta event, for example, employed home-made rockets of the type favored by insurgents. The White House Memorandum on Khan Sheikhoun seemed to rely heavily on testimony from the Syrian White Helmets who were filmed at the scene having contact with supposed Sarin-tainted casualties and not suffering any ill effects.

Likewise, these same actors were filmed wearing chemical weapons training suits around the supposed “point of impact” in Khan Sheikhoun, something which makes their testimony (and samples) highly suspect. A training suit offers no protection at all, and these people would all be dead if they had come into contact with real military-grade Sarin.

Chemical weapons are abhorrent and illegal, and no one knows this more than Carla Del Ponte. She, however, was unable to fulfill her U.N. Joint Investigative Mechanism mandate in Syria and withdrew in protest over the United States refusing to fully investigate allegations of chemical weapons use by “rebels” (jihadis) allied with the American effort to oust President Assad (including the use of Sarin by anti-Assad rebels).

The fact that U.N. investigators were in Syria when the chemical weapon event in Khan Sheikhoun occurred in April 2017 makes it highly dubious that Assad would have given the order to use Sarin at that time. Common sense suggests that Assad would have chosen any other time than that to use a banned weapon that he had agreed to destroy and never employ.

Furthermore, he would be placing at risk his patronage from Russia if they turned on him as a war criminal and withdrew their support for him.

Tactically, as a former soldier, it makes no sense to me that anyone would intentionally target civilians and children as the White Helmet reports suggest he did.

There is compelling analysis from Gareth Porter suggesting that phosphine could have been released by an airborne munition striking a chemical depot, since the clouds and casualties (while organophosphate-appearing in some respects) do not appear to be similar to MilSpec Sarin, particularly the high-test Russian bomb-carried Sarin which independent groups like “bellingcat” insist was deployed.

America’s credibility was damaged by Colin Powell at the United Nations in 2003 falsely accusing Saddam Hussein of having mobile anthrax laboratories. Fast forward to 2017 and we encounter Nikki Haley in an uncomfortably similar situation at the U.N. Security Council calling for action against yet another non-Western head-of-state based on weak, unsubstantiated evidence.

Now Secretary Mattis has added fuel to the WMD propaganda doubters’ fire by retroactively calling into question the rationale for an American cruise missile strike.

While in no way detracting from the horror of what took place against innocent civilians in Syria, it is time for America to stop shooting first and asking questions later.

Ian Wilkie is an international lawyer, U.S. Army veteran and former intelligence community contractor.

http://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admi ... ple-801542

This revelation(...) means nothing at all, the water is under the bridge and the public has in their minds 'Syrian government = poison gas'. Mission accomplished. How is it that resource heavy MSM cannot ferret out what was known on the internet almost immediately? In this way they serve the government while maintaining a pretend-adversarial relationship, the illusion of freedom of information.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Sat Feb 10, 2018 12:55 pm

Syria - Is War With Israel Imminent?
Around 6 am GMT the Syrian air defense shot downed an Israeli fighter jet that was attacking the country. There is now the chance that a larger war will ensue. (The whole story behind this will surely be covered in Elijah Magnier's upcoming book on Hizbullah.)

[This is a developing story that will be updated below as new information comes in.]

This escalation comes after a series of recent provocations against the Russian forces in Syria, yesterday's U.S. attack on Syrian forces, last week's Israeli threats against Lebanon and dozens of Israeli air attacks on alleged Hizbullah or Iranian installations in Syria.

Tonight's events developed after Israel shot down what it called an "Iranian drone" allegedly in air space over the Israel occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Syria denies that its drone violated Israeli air space. Israel then attacked ground targets in Syria. One attacking Israeli F-16 fighter jet was taken down by Syrian air defense. The pilot ejected and parachuted into Israeli territory. He is wounded but survived. It is the first downing of an Israeli jet by Syrian air defense since 1982! Further Israeli "retaliation" followed. This is another paragraph in the long history of Israeli aggression against Syria.

Image
Older map with an approximate timeline of events - Source: LeBeck- bigger
There are some unconfirmed vague reports of a second damaged F-16 and a destroyed Israeli Apache helicopter.

Today's development as covered in Eljiah Magnier's timeline (emphasis added):

Elijah J. Magnier‏ @ejmalrai - 5:06 AM - 10 Feb 2018
Missiles launched over #Damascus; Rockets over the Golan Heights and a drone downed over #Israel: all in the last hour.
Israel said it is "an #Iranian drone". If that is the case, it is a "forced reconnaissance" to exhaust the Israeli defence system, #Hezbollah's style.

#Breakingnews:
#Israel F-16 downed by what seems to be #Syria air defence system

#BreakingNews: Private source
All Syrian military and intelligence and their allies (#Hezbollah) positions in #Syria and #Lebanon on full alert

Source: #Israel recognition of downing an F-16 means Syria is on alert waiting for any Israeli violation, as is #Hezbolah and #Iran. Would Israel be dragged to war? How #Russia will react in #Syria? The front is very hot now.

#Israel changing version from "an #Iranian drone" to admit the downing of an F-16 was a first attempt to accuse #Tehran but later had to admit the reality showing a confusion in decision makers in the first hour.

#Syria is used to war as its leadership has been engaged in it fully for the last 6-7 years. Therefore #Damascus's Gov is ready for another front following the liberation of #ISIS last pocket in the north (except the one under #USA control).

Level of escalation in #Damascus response was a warning to #Israel that #TelAviv didn't take onboard. #Israel may limit itself bombing few Syrian positions from afar (flying over #Lebanon) or be dragged into escalation on a front from #Lebanon to #Syria

#Israel can't ignore the downing of its F-16, never happen in the last decades over #Syria and #Lebanon. Therefore what is important is the level of response: will the response bring a retaliation? If so, the long waited war may began.

This is a new Rule of Engagement and a new situation where #Israel is finding itself incapable of dominating the #Syria/n air space. It also shows #Damascus freedom (unlike many analysts believed) to respond regardless what #Russia's position is.

#Syria/n officials believe more than 1 F-16 were hit by its anti-Air missiles, showing the Syrian air-defence capability and the challenging attitude of #Damascus towards #Israel (not accepting the Israeli version of only 1 F-16 downed).

One conclusion: The Sky over #Syria is no longer an #Israeli/i promenade and the Syrian Army is now ready for another confrontation. This blows up all (ridiculous) assessment by analysts that "the Syrian Army stretched..., skinny..., few thousands only...)

#Israel admitted, indirectly, of the efficiency of the #Syrian Air-defence system by saying:"We study a retaliation". The question is and remain: How #Russia will behave? Allow #Israel to hit its Syrian ally and remain on the side? Or stop the escalation?

It is in the disadvantage of #Russia to see another war in #Syria on the southern front, with a #USA intervention, #Hezbollah #Iran the #Palestinians... all that may lead to a general war unless the Israeli response is limited.

#Hezbollah, on full alert in #Syria and #Lebanon, expected the reaction. Its leader Said Hasan Nasrallah warned to open a general war from Naqoura to the Golan Heights in the forthcoming war.

This escalation coincide with the approval of #Lebanon to start its oil exploration in Block 9.

Just a thought: If this is a #Russian tit-for-tat, we could say that it is #Russia response to the downing of the Russian jet over #Idlib. Russia accused the #USA of providing anti-air missiles to #AQ allies.

It is likely that #Damascus issues a communiqué to confirm its air defence fired the missiles against the F-16 hitting more than one jet to counter the #Israeli version claiming that #Iran is directly involved in this event.

It seems #Israel warning Sirens blare in Northern #Israel over the Golan, the Galilee and the northern of Israel, closing the airspace over the north of Israel.

7:35 AM - 10 Feb 2018
#BreakingNews: A second #Israel/i air bombing against #Syria. #Damascus open fire again against Israel Jets and Golan Heights positions. Siren over Israel continue. Escalation (for now).

#Breakingnews Source in Syria suggested Shahren[*] anti air system was used against the F-16, downing the Israeli jet over Israel air space. The message said the source is : not even your air space is secure from now on

Should Israel escalate to a bigger war it will be covered with hundreds of missiles per hour. Normal civil life will come to a stand still. Lebanon and Syria would also be under severe attacks but they are better positioned to endure such a situation.

Russia, as well as the U.S., could become involved and into direct conflict. This must be avoided at all cost. But the current personal in White House, especially the military triumvirate behind the president, is of dubious quality. Moscow is hopefully aware of this.

[Update (12 am GMT)]

The parties are now deescalating. In the latest round Israel claims to have hit several Syrian air-defense positions and "Hizbullah depots" while Syria claims to have shot down more incoming missiles. Israel signaled that it is not interested in further escalation and Russia called for both sides to calm down. There has been no statement from Washington.

If this outcome persists we can state that there are now new rules of engagement. Further Israeli attacks on Syria will be responded to by effective means. The Russian officers who are co-located with the Syrian air defense will not intervene. That fact is in itself a message from Moscow to Israel to stop its clandestine provocations.

---

*The Shahren air defense system is an Iranian copy of the U.S. cold war "Hawk" system.

Posted by b on February 10, 2018 at 04:29 AM

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/sy ... inent.html

Good work from 'b' today, but ya gotta watch 'em.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:03 pm

Syria - New 'Chemical Weapons' Fake Planned - Chlorine Though Will Not Do

During the seven years of the war on Syria several accusations were made that the government that it had used 'chemical weapons' against the attacking extremists. The Syrian government denied to have ever released any chemicals. The implausible to murky 'evidence' of such incidents always came from foreign paid propaganda groups and extremists on the ground. They were likely staged to incriminate the government and to thereby induce military attacks by foreign states.

We currently see several reports which in their combination look like preparations for of another fake 'chemical weapon' incident.

On February 13 the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria noted a warning of an upcoming false-flag 'chemical attack' incident:

"On the evening of February 12, a resident from the Serakab settlement located in the Idlib province called the Russian Center for Reconciliaition to notify (the center) about a chemical weapons attack that could be staged to provide footage for a foreign TV channel," the statement reads. "The caller said that earlier on February 12, Jabhat al-Nusra members travelling in three cars had brought more than 20 chlorine gas cylinders and personal protective equipment to Serakab," the Center added.
"According to the caller, members of the local While Helmets branch wore personal protective equipment while rehearsing first aid provision to civilians suffering from chemical poisoning," the Russian Center said.
...
"The caller pointed out that all the proceedings had been filmed by professional reporters who used a mic with the CNN logo, while commenting on the actions being taken by the White Helmets," the statement said, adding that in between takes, the reporters had consulted with some people over a satellite telephone in English.

The White Helmets are a mostly British funded propaganda organization embedded with Hayat Tahreer Al-Sham, the current incarnation of al-Qaeda in Syria which rules Idleb governorate. The head of al-Qaeda in Syria, Abu Jaber Al-Sheikh, lauded (video, alternative) the White Helmets as the "hidden soldiers of our revolution".

CNN is currently embedded with al-Qaeda and is producing White Helmets propaganda in Idleb governorate:

CNN Today‏ @cnntoday - 12:23 AM - 14 Feb 2018
EXCLUSIVE report from @arwaCNN in #Idlib Syria and @holmescnn has #TheBreakdown on more fighting in #Ghouta #Afrin #DeirEzzor
The Russian warning is not the only sign that another fake chemical weapon attack is coming up.

The Israeli government is pushing "top secret" disinformation into the public which preemptively blames the Syrian government for any upcoming incident. It is also attempts to influence foreign governments on the issue:

According to a "Top secret" cable sent to Israeli ambassadors earlier this week, Israel fears that the Assad regime will use the chemical weapons it still has left in a way which might spill over to Israeli territory. The contents of the cable were shared with me by senior Israeli officials.
...
[T]he strategic division in the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs sent the 'Top Secret" cable to 15 Israeli embassies around the world, including in Washington.
...
One of the more unusual instructions in the cable was to pass a strong message regarding the Israeli concern that the chemical weapons left at the disposal of the Assad regime might be used against rebel forces ...
On Tuesday the White Helmets were again trying to get more foreign powers involved in fighting the Syrian government:

France should stop talking about red lines and focus on real action to persuade the main actors in Syria’s conflict to agree a ceasefire, [Abdulrahman Almawwas], the vice-president of the Syria Civil Defence, or “White Helmets”, said on Tuesday.
...
Speaking after meeting senior French officials, including Macron’s chief diplomatic adviser, Almawwas said France needed to put pressure on the main protagonists, such as pushing for a no-fly zone, even though he acknowledged France had few options.
Only hours after Abdulrahman Almawwas spoke with Macron’s chief diplomatic adviser, the French president issued a statement which set up a 'red line' trap:

“On chemical weapons, I set a red line and I reaffirm that red line,” Macron told reporters. “If we have proven evidence that chemical weapons proscribed in treaties are used, we will strike the place where they are made.”
“Today, our agencies, our armed forces have not established that chemical weapons, as set out in treaties, have been used against the civilian population.”

Setting red lines is always a trap. Anyone can release 'chemical weapons' in insurgent controlled areas in Syria and blame the Syrian government - thus potentially triggering the French 'red line'. So far though France has "not established" that a real chemical weapon incident ever happened. Of note in Macron's statement was also the threat to strike at "the place where they are made". That place would likely be outside of Syria. The French Foreign Ministry noted Macorn's inconvenient choice of words, intervened and today "clarified" his remarks:

France's foreign minister on Wednesday sought to clarify his government's position on the use of chemical weapons in Syria saying that Paris would only strike if the attacks were lethal and carried out by government forces.
...
"(The president) confirmed that he would proceed to military strikes against regime installations if there was a new use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad's forces when these attacks are lethal and regime's responsibility is proven," Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers.
Al-Qaeda will have no problem to create a "lethal" chemical weapon attack. They have killed ten-thousands of Syrian without any remorse. To "prove" that the Syrian government did it will be the task of the White Helmets and its CNN and Atlantic Council collaborators.

Chlorine though will not do.

Image
Source: Chlorine - Properties (vid) - bigger

In their last attempt to smear the Syrian government for using 'chemical weapons' those organizations hyped the remains of a few 107mmm rockets which allegedly carried chlorine gas and were fired against the Takfiri held areas of east-Ghouta. (Unmentioned were the thousands of grenades fired by east-Ghouta Takfiris against civilians in Damascus.)

If those rockets held chlorine they have had no effect on anyone.

Chlorine gas is hardly ever deadly. It is 2.5 times heavier than air with a distinct yellow-green color and a strong bleach odor. Chlorine gas will only kill those submerged in a high concentration cloud. If one sees or smells it one simply walks away from the cloud and thereby stays safe. Chlorine was used as the first chemical weapon in World War I because it would creep downwards into deep enemy ditches. It was soon found to be ineffective as a weapon and replaced with other chemicals.

That a few rockets with a few pounds of chlorine would have no 'lethal' effect is also obvious from official reports during the U.S. occupation of Iraq:

The first documented chlorine attack was Oct. 21, 2006, in Ramadi, a Multinational Force Iraq spokeswoman said. In that attack, terrorists drove a car bomb with 12 120 mm mortar shells and two 100-pound chlorine tanks. The attack wounded three Iraqi policemen and a civilian.
The first attack that received media attention was at Taji, where terrorists remotely detonated a 5-ton truck packed with 100 pounds of high explosives and two 1-ton chlorine tanks. The attack killed one civilian and wounded 114 others.
...
The most recent attack was June 3 against Forward Operating Base Warhorse, in Diyala province. Again, a suicide car bomber launched the attack, and officials estimate it included two tanks of chlorine and 1,000 pounds of explosive. The cloud from the attack blew over Warhorse and sickened 65 servicemembers, Multinational Force Iraq officials said. All were examined and returned to duty.
...
A Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said there are anecdotal reports that while the blasts from the attacks have killed, few have died solely from the gas. “We hear that an old man and some babies may have been killed, but we can’t pin that down,” the spokesman said.

If literally tons of chlorine were used in attacks in Iraq with no deadly effect how could a few pounds on top of some small rockets kill anyone?

On February 2 the U.S. Secretary of Defense Mattis acknowledge the practical uselessness of chlorine by putting it into a "separate category" than other chemical weapons. He also noted that he has no evidence of any such weapon use:

Q: Is there evidence of chlorine gas weapons used -- evidence of chlorine gas weapons?
SEC. MATTIS: I think that's, yes --

Q: No, I know, I heard you.

SEC. MATTIS: I think it's been used repeatedly. And that's, as you know, a somewhat separate category, which is why I broke out the sarin as another -- yeah.

Q: So there's credible evidence out there that both sarin and chlorine --

SEC. MATTIS: No, I have not got the evidence, not specifically. I don't have the evidence.

What I'm saying is that other -- that groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground have said that sarin has been used. So we are looking for evidence. I don't have evidence, credible or uncredible.

NGOs and "fighters on the ground" claimed to have evidence of chemical weapon attacks. But just like the French agencies and armed forces Macron mentioned, Mattis and the DoD have none.

The Takfiris of al-Qaeda, the White Helmets propaganda shop and its media acolytes may well prepare, as the Russians report, another fake chemical attack stunt. The Israeli government is busy preparing the public relations ground. But the French government, having trapped itself with 'red line' nonsense, then set the mark higher at 'lethal' attacks.

Chlorine is, as shown above, hardly ever lethal. But al-Qaeda will have no qualms about coming up with a few corpses to prove the 'lethality' of a fake incident.

We also have seen how, with some outside help, a harmless chlorine release can be faked in an allegedly deadly sarin attack. Such happened in April 2017 in the Khan Sheikhun incident.

Multiple early on-the-ground reports by local witnesses and Turkish officials spoke of chlorine release and chlorine affected patients. Only a day later were these claims turned into an alleged "sarin attack". Real evidence was never obtained from the al-Qaeda ruled grounds where that incident happened. A discredited investigation was inconclusive. It claimed some "sarin-like substance" may have been involved but it could not even explain why more than 50 casualties of the claimed incident arrived at far away hospitals BEFORE it had happened at all:

The admission times of the [hospital] records range between 0600 and 1600 hours. Analysis of the aforementioned medical records revealed that in 57 cases, patients were admitted in five hospitals before the incident in Khan Shaykhun (at 0600, 0620 and 0640 hours).
One has to agree with Secretary of Defense Mattis on this - some corpses shown to CNN by "NGOs" and "fighters on the ground" are not real evidence. Neither are discredited investigations. If the al-Qaeda Takfiris and its supporters want to come up with some believable fake they must set their standard much higher.

Posted by b on February 15, 2018 at 11:35 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/sy ... ot-do.html
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:10 pm

The US Plans Endless Occupation and the Partition of Syria

U.S. Peace Council February 15, 2018

Since the liberation of Aleppo in December 2016, report after report of military victories by the Syrian government and its allies over the foreign jihadist mercenaries led some in the Western media to suppose that the war was all but over.
For a time, the Syrian war, which had claimed more than 400,000 lives and made refugees of millions of Syrians, moved out of the headlines. Some in the U.S. antiwar movement may have also allowed themselves to hope the war in Syria was winding down.
Unfortunately, the war in Syria is back in the headlines. Events are now moving fast.

The US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria conducted air and artillery strikes against the Syrian Army recently, killing an estimated 100 “pro-regime fighters,” according to a coalition statement. Some were Russians according to reports. Thus, two nuclear-armed great powers are in direct conflict now in Syria.
Syrian jihadist “rebels” shot down a Russian warplane for the first time on February 3rd, and Russia’s defense ministry said the pilot was killed as he resisted capture by jihadists.
A third nuclear-armed state, Israel, is now fully in the war, primarily, it would seem, for anti-Iran reasons. On February 10, an Israeli F-16 warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria was shot down over central Syria by anti-aircraft fire. Israel is boasting its raids took out half the Syrian government’s air defenses.
The ideological offensive against Syria has resumed. Fresh “reports” from dubious sources such as “The White Helmets” and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — observing from England! — on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government appear in the U.S. corporate media and some “alternative” media. Such slanders can spread across the world in a heartbeat, while it takes months to disprove them — as they all have been disproved.[1]
During his campaign and in the early days of his Administration, Trump seemingly narrowed the US goal to the defeat of one terrorist group, ISIS (or ISIL), which since 2014 had won substantial territory in Syria and Iraq. He downplayed the goal of “regime change.” But the failure of the U.S., its NATO allies, and their proxies for seven years to overthrow the Syrian government forced Trump to switch from Obama’s direct attempts to oust the current Syrian government to Plan B, i.e., Trump administration’s attempt to adopt an indirect way to force a regime change in Syria. The Obama Administration policy was clear enough: “regime-change,” i.e. ousting Syrian President Assad by means of proxies, the so-called “moderate rebels” — actually well-paid terrorist mercenaries recruited by means of social media from all over the Muslim world and bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Their terrorism against the Syrian people was aided by Israel, Jordan and Turkey, with overall military coordination of the war by the U.S. However, at his Stanford University speech on January 17, 2018, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the main points of Trump Administration’s new version of U.S. policy toward Syria:

Long-term presence of U.S. military forces engaged in combat operations;
Expansion of the military mission from defeat of ISIS to also preventing Iranian influence in the post-ISIS Syria;
“Stabilization” (that is, provision of humanitarian, economic, and political assistance) to areas under rebels’ control;
National elections under United Nations supervision; and
“[Rallying] the Syrian people and individuals within the regime to compel Assad to step down.”
In less convoluted terms, the Trump Administration’s Plan B seeks to achieve the U.S. goal of forced regime change through the following three consecutive steps:

Step One: Partitioning of Syria and establishing permanent U.S. military bases in northern Syria, where the oil is;
Step Two: Arming and training the rebel forces in the secured Kurdish areas; and,
Step Three: Using the captured territories and the trained rebel forces under the command of Syria-based U.S. forces to impose a regime change in Damascus.
These are important facts about the new U.S. plan for Syria and the Middle East:

The U.S. is now directly engaged in illegally occupying Syrian territory, claiming rights to Syrian oil and attacking the Syrian army in the name of “self-defense.”
Officially, U.S. forces inside Syria number at least 2,000. The real count may be far higher. There are also many thousands of U.S. forces on ships in the Mediterranean or in nearby countries.
The 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria are arming and organizing the 30,000-strong the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces,” a mix of Kurdish and Arab fighters who have been the primarily fighting on the U.S. side in Syria.
Turkey has recently invaded northern Syria to attack the Syrian Kurds who live in northern border areas contiguous to Turkey. The Turkish government fears its own large, Kurdish minority’s rightful aspirations for national self-determination. Turkey fears that Syria’s north can become a staging area for a liberation struggle inside Turkey.
Normally, subservient Turkey was the conduit for most of the foreign mercenaries entering Syria. Now, the Turkish invasion, wholly illegal and unjustified, complicates U.S. occupation plans, which are also wholly illegal and unjustified.
The invasion has created an intra-NATO problem. Turkey is in NATO but has been drifting away from the U.S.-dominated war alliance with its recent major arms purchases from Russia.
Trump has done everything possible to strengthen the U.S.-Israel-Saudi axis, which since 2011 has been the core support of the terrorist mercenaries in Syria.
In nearby Afghanistan, it is clear the U.S. has not won the 17-year war against the Taliban insurgency, so Trump is sending more U.S. troops to shore up the government in Kabul and forestall a humiliating U.S. defeat.
Trump’s overall military budget in 2018 will come to $716 billion. Under Trump, there is no turning away from interventionist wars that begun or continued by his predecessors, despite his campaign rhetoric to the contrary. Tom Paine once wrote “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.…” Neither is US imperialism easily conquered, even though its power is waning. Urgent action by U.S. peace movement is needed. We must urgently re-energize the work of the whole U.S. peace movement on Syria. At the upcoming, long overdue national antiwar actions for April 2018, the demand “Hands off Syria!” must be front and center. _______________ [1] See, “Now Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Poison Gas on His People,” Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admi ... ple-801542

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Fri Feb 23, 2018 2:20 pm

Syria - The Two East-Ghouta Campaigns - One Is For Liberation, The Other To Save Terrorists

Daily mortar and missile attacks against the Syrian capital Damascus have been ongoing for years but intensified in recent months. The often quoted Syrian Observatory notes:

... raising to 116 persons at least including 18 children and 14 citizen women, who were killed as a result of the fall of these shells since the beginning of escalation on the capital Damascus and its suburbs on the 16th of November, and the SOHR documented the injury of more than 563 persons who were injured in these daily targeting during 3 consecutive months.
Other accounts report higher casualty numbers.

Some of the attacks on Damascus city hit well designated targets. The Russian embassy in Damascus has been mortared several times. Earlier this month more well targeted projectiles hit other Russian interests:

Maxim A. Suchkov‏ @MSuchkov_ALM - 4:03 AM - 7 Feb 2018
#Russia's trade mission in #Damascus got hit by 120-mm bomb & is badly damaged. Earlier Rus aid delivery point in the city came under fire killing two local Syrians, Rus non-gov delegation (Christian & Muslim leaders who brought collected aid) had to be evacuated.
All these mortars and missiles were fired from east-Ghouta, a Takfiri held area consisting partly of densely urban blocks and partly of agricultural villages. Some 400,000 people originally lived in the area but the number of people living there now is likely less than half of that.

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The area is occupied by Takfiris from three groups. Jaish al-Islam is under control of the Salafi Alloush clan and is financed through Wahhabi "donations" from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Al-Qaeda in Syria (aka Nusra Front) and its allied group Faylaq al-Rahman also have significant contingents in east-Ghouta.

In 2015 these terrorist published video which showed their attempts to shoot down a civil airliner which had just taken off from Damascus airport. They drove caged civilians of Alawite belief around town to protect themselves from bombing. The three groups have fought each other again and again and the people in east-Ghouta are the ones who have suffered most from them.

There have been several ceasefire agreements between the government and the terrorist groups but each of them was broken by one or the other group on the terrorist side. Last week another aid convoy by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered the area and distributed food and other humanitarian goods. But like elsewhere the militant groups will surely take control of such supplies, hoard them and use them primarily for themselves.

The Syrian government and its allies decided to finally liberated east-Ghouta from the grip of the Takfiri terrorists. Some 25,000 government troops are assembling now and preparatory artillery fire and aerial bombing has begun. The Syrian air force dropped leaflets to point anyone who wants to leave the area to designated humanitarian crossing points.

The western propaganda is repeating its "save Aleppo" campaign to save the terrorists in Ghouta. There is no mentioning in this campaign of any Takfiri and no picture of any of the sectarian militants who daily kill random people in Damascus. This rings hollow writes Robert Fisk.

During the siege and the liberation of east-Aleppo the seven year old Bana, a girl who did not (vid) understand or know any English, was tweeting her genuine feelings in best prosaic English to the world. She called for war against Russia. Her father turned out to be a henchman for al-Qaeda's sharia court in east-Aleppo. But the media just loved that story.

CNN now found itself a new "Bana": The 15-year-old documenting Eastern Ghouta massacre with selfie videos. But this time the lucrative position of a tearful media darling attracted competition:

Ruth Sherlock‏ @Rsherlock - 2:00 PM - 22 Feb 2018
We spoke with a mother, a former english schoolteacher in #Eastern #Ghouta. Now she teaches her daughter to make video appeals in English - the world has ignored this siege for so long, she said. She hopes people might listen to a desperate child.
There are also Noor and Alaa - a Twitter account which claims to be of two young girls in east-Ghouta who in their videos read out English language propaganda shown to them off camera to "save Ghouta". These two girls seem to be run by the same guy, Mr Alhmado, who organized the Bana scam in east-Aleppo.

During the 2016 Aleppo campaign the terrorist supporters ran an "Aleppo Media Center" which distributed propaganda products to the "western" media. Together with the "White Helmets" al-Qaeda support gang it created the "boy in the ambulance" picture that many "western" newspaper printed on their front pages. The AMC was financed by the French government. The same organization that ran the AMC is now running the Ghouta Media Center GMC. The English language twitter account of the AMC sent its last tweet on July 5 2017. The first tweet of the new GMC was sent on July 9 2017. Both use a similar logo design:

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There are an estimated 15,000 men under arms in east-Ghouta. Despite that, not one armed person can be seen in any of dozens "White Helmets" propaganda videos of pictures of allegedly rescued, wounded or killed persons in east-Ghouta.

During the east-Aleppo campaign between June 10 2016 and November 19 2016 the "last hospital of Aleppo" was reported as being destroyed "just now" for at least 21 times (vid). The "last hospital of east-Ghouta" will soon follow a similar path to fame.

The Syrian government has offered to evacuate all militants and their families from east-Ghouta to Idleb governorate. They declined. With the help of Egypt negotiations are ongoing with the Takfiri sponsors in Saudi Arabia. But as there are several terrorist groups involved it is doubtful that much will come from these talks.

The real assault on east-Ghouta has not even started and the "western" governments and media are already waging a full fledged campaign against it. But neither Syria nor its allies will allow the further existence of this al-Qaeda enclave. Two UN Security Council resolutions, 2249 and 2254, literary "demand" "to eradicate the safe haven [al-Qaeda and ISIS] have established over significant parts of Syria". While others try to protect those terrorists, Syria, Russia and Iran will fulfill this demand.

Obama acolytes call for U.S. attacks on Russian forces to "convince" Putin" that the terrorists in Ghouta must be "saved". But Russia has flown ten additional fighter planes to Syria, including two of its brand new Su-57s (vid), and further upped its air defenses to prevent any surprises from the U.S. or any other side.

While the preliminary shelling is ongoing no starting date and no operational plans for the ground campaign to liberate east-Ghouta have been revealed. Those may depend on the situation on other fronts in Syria, especially the situation in Afrin where Kurdish forces and other Syrian groups are fighting off a Turkish invasion. A follow-up piece will look into that campaign.

Posted by b on February 23, 2018 at 08:35 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/sy ... rists.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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